Author and coach Angie Hawkins joins The High-Functioning Disaster to talk about surviving rock bottom, dismantling lifelong people-pleasing, and choosing radical self-love—the messy, real kind. We trace Angie’s journey from a Midwest childhood with emotionally unavailable parents to life in Hawai‘i, the day she survived an intentional overdose, the friend who said “It’s not your time,” and how that moment set her on a path to write her memoir Running in Slippers and help women break free from performance and perfection.
We also get into vulnerability vs. shame, why recording her audiobook was harder than writing it, signs you might be stuck in a people-pleasing loop (hello resentment and exhaustion), letting yourself be seen on social media, and leaving corporate burnout to live in alignment.
Content note: This episode includes candid conversation about suicide and an intentional overdose (approx. 06:00–10:10). If you or someone you know is struggling, in the U.S., call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
In this episode
- Growing up with emotionally unavailable parents, and the belief “I don’t deserve love.”
- The two-and-a-half-year cascade that led to Angie’s breaking point
- “It’s not your time”: the sentence that shifted everything
- Why she chose coaching when traditional therapy wasn’t working
- Writing and recording Running in Slippers—grief, shame, and unexpected healing
- People-pleasing as self-abandonment and how to spot it (resentment, exhaustion)
- Radical self-love in practice, not Instagram
- Allowing yourself to be seen: imperfect “walk-and-talk” videos, authenticity over polish
- Enneagram cameo, big-energy Eights, and solution-mode brains
- Walking away from corporate America to build a values-aligned life
About Angie
Angie Hawkins is the author of Running in Slippers and a women’s coach who helps high-functioning achievers break cycles of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and self-abandonment so they can live with authenticity, boundaries, and purpose.
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Key takeaways
People-pleasing recovery, overcoming perfectionism, radical self-love, authenticity, trauma healing, vulnerability, shame resilience, suicide survival story, audiobook memoir, corporate burnout, boundaries for women, Midwest to Hawai‘i.
Credits & CTA
Mention hearing this podcast and receive a discount on the coaching program. Email Angie at angie@runninginslippers.com or visit her website to schedule a 1-hour appointment.
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